Blog #1

The author Sonia J. Foss describes rhetoric in many ways through the use of symbols. Bringing up ways that symbols are a way we use to communicate with others. We live our lives surrounded by symbols and we react to them accordingly. The author says, “How we perceive, what we know, what we experience, and how we act are the results of the symbols and we create and the symbols we encounter in the world” (Foss 3). The way we interact with these symbols is called rhetoric criticism. The rhetoric criticism we react to can be simple things like watching television or looking at a billboard advertisement. Through symbols humans create rhetoric as a form of communication. If rhetoric is the way to speak through communication then why not just call it communication or speech? Because of the symbols we use to counter someone’s opinion or just to symbolize a way of life, we use rhetoric in a different tone then communication. Foss describes “Every symbolic choice we make results in seeing the world in one way rather than in another, in contrast to animals, humans experience is different because of the symbol we use to frame it” (Foss 4).
Rhetoric strictly coexists with symbols rather than signs, being that a symbol is something that stands for something or can be used to represent something else. Like wind hitting you is a sign that the temperature is cooler or that a storm is inevitably near. One way Foss puts the distinction of sign and symbol is through a tennis match between people who have not experienced it in years against someone who has played the game for years. She discusses that the unfit person suggest he will not do as good therefore, symbolizing why his performance was very tragic. Humans may use objects that are not symbolic and form then into something symbolic. An example Foss uses “The tree could become a symbol, however, if it is used by someone to communicate an idea” (Foss 5).
In my own life this has become an effective method of communicating. Many symbols I used to describe the way I feel, or how I react in some ways that can be explained as rhetoric. Something like arguing with someone in a harsh method, I’ve used symbols that connect to the situation to prove my points. Rhetoric is a way for me to discuss with others through symbolizing my meaning.


Rhetoric -
1: The art of speaking or writing effectively: as the study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion.
2: Skill in the effective use of speech.